Programme: Glenn Hoddle

Tottenham Hotspur (Spurs) Football Club is located in North London. The club is also known as Spurs. Tottenham's home ground is White Hart Lane. The club motto is Audere est Facere (To dare is to do).

Welcome to all from Derby County.

Reflecting back on the United match, if ever there was a game that shows you the highs and lows in football it was that one! Because when the third one went in, every Spurs supporter in the stadium was on such a high so we had to calm things down.

In fact what we did at half-time was to try to calm that down a bit and, believe it or not, the players actually went out for the second half with the approach that it was 0-0 because the last thing we wanted to do was to concede.

Still some of our football in the first-half has to be applauded and enjoyed. The overall performance in that period was probably as good as we have played all season. In saying that, what happened in the second half left us with a lot of lessons to learn.

Conceding that early goal didn't help and I think the whole stadium, let alone the players, thought that we've got a game on our hands now. One lesson for us to take on board has got to be how we react when we give a goal away. In some ways you can become a very good team if you can react in the same way when you concede as when you score.

It affected us too much and in the second-half we became disjointed. Obviously we've since spoken about it in depth and we must now strive to benefit from the experience. But I don't think that you can take anything away from United who deserve every credit. Any other side would have lost against us that day and we would have had the points in the bag against anyone else at 3-1.

It just shows what the rest of the Premiership have to do to bridge that gap with United. But credit to us as well for playing some super football in the first half in the knowledge that on another day and against a different team we would have won the game.

So our performances this year have been very good overall. However we've just got to start converting them into victories now and this game against Derby is a definite 'must' when we need to take all three points. If it means playing great football to do so then fine but even if we can't reach the heights of that first period against United, we just have got to win tonight and start putting a run of games together.

It will be a tough game. County have had a change of management and Colin Todd will have his own ideas which he will be putting into action. John and I watched them over at Fulham last week where they had a poor result but they did well for long periods of the game and were 2-1 up at one stage.

So it's going to be a difficult game, an awkward game, and we've got to open up like we did against Tranmere and United.

In fact Tranmere was a tremendous way in which to bounce back after such a crushing blow as the United defeat but Prenton Park is a very difficult place to go to get a cup win, I can assure you. I can speak from experience after last year when I went there with Southampton!

Our players were superb with their attitude and approach to the game. We had a strong feeling in the dressing room beforehand that it was going to be a good night for us and so it proved. We played some super football at times and when we did get the chances we were clinical in our finishing. That's one thing we haven't been this season but at Tranmere we created six chances and took four of them.

So the players take a lot of credit for that performance and that was a lovely way to go into the next round because that was a potential banana skin, without doubt.

Congratulations all round to England on reaching the World Cup Finals. Teddy played a major part in the last group game against Greece and made a great contribution in the time that he was on the field. Now we all look forward to the summer and what is going to be an exciting time for all of us.

The sad news is that Willem Korsten has been forced to give up the game.

Since I've been here I've found him to be an excellent professional, a really genuine guy and I don't say that lightly. It's a great shame that at 26, in the middle of his career, he's had to give up. It was a very sad day when the doctor and I sat down with Willem and the decision was taken. But we'll be giving him every help that we can and wish him well for the future. I am sure, with the type of guy that he is, he will make a success out of anything that he does.

In closing, as this is anti-racism week, I want to lend all my support to this excellent campaign and stress that such a negative attitude has no place in football. We're all one big family - so let's kick racism out of the game.